building a SUPER budget system

[Evdawg]

should i go celeron or xp?

I was thinking either a 2100/2500 for xp.. or i dont know for celeron.

He's gonna be doing a lot of music editing and thing like that (hes an artist). Little if any gaming at all, and a lot of word/excel/powerpoint work.

I figured 512mb of some ram (prolly ocz crap or something), and a decent hdd. Is there a decent $50-$75 motherboard out there? (i will be adding an aftermarket sound card to it)

 

[mechBgon]

How about a Shuttle MN31N motherboard? That's an nForce2 board with onboard dual-head video, onboard nVidia hardware-accelerated audio, Firewire, USB 2.0 and it will take CPUs with a 266MHz or 333MHz bus speed, so that includes almost all AthlonXP's, or also the 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Durons that run 266MHz FSB.

The retail-boxed 2500+ might be a good match for that, with some PC2700. If you use two or three modules, then dual-channel will help the onboard 3D performance quite a bit in gaming, for whatever that's worth.

Whatever you do, I encourage you/him to not get skimpy on the power supply. Maybe look at the Antec SLK3700AMB case & power supply at Newegg since they're running free shipping on it right now, making it $64 shipped. It has a decent 350W power supply with a 3-year warranty. The link in my signature has a bunch of photos of an SLK3700AMB in various states of disassembly if you want to check that out

 

[Evdawg]

yea definently not lookign for much gaming here...

i thought i'd go 2x256 anyways though.

Looking at the shuttle boards right now, thinking for the price that the an35 is what i need. Think i should go with an xp2500 and overclock it like usaual to 3200, or 3000 depending on what chip i get and if the mutliplier is locked.

 

[mechBgon]

That could work out nicely. The mobile 2400+ is unlocked and is a hot item for the overclockers. You'd need a video card for the AN35N Ultra, but maybe he has a suitable one already? You also give up the Firewire and hardware audio processors, if that matters.

 

[ku]

For multimedia, i suggest you get a gig of ram... PC2700 would do just dandy there

 

[Yanagi]

Agreed. If hes into music and want to do some editing 1gb ram would suit him nice. It doesnt have to be an expensive brand. Any original PC 2700 would do fine.

 

[jswjimmy]

oh come on he doesnt need 1gb, a good 512mb ddr333 will be fine.

 

[SneakyStuff]

I was up early this morning, check this out

Case- $49 shipped
CPU- $62
Memory- $73
HD- $64
Mobo- $70

And you add the disk drives!

Forgot, add a sound card if he's gonna be doin a lotta audio work. $28 Since it's a budget system, the SB live card would work fine, i've had one myself, and I can say it was a decent card. The Audigy 2 ZS is better for $88 tho, all depends on his speaker situation I suppose.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Barton 2500+ cpus have been selling for $65 shiped in the FS/FT forums.

You could probably find some 512mb PC2700 used ram in the forums for $60 - $70 shipped.

As for a mobo, get a microATX nForce2 motherboard. That way everything is built in. I like the Biostar M7NCG 400 personally. They are $61 at newegg, but I've seen them for less, and they often have some refurbs for $45ish.

 

[JeffreyY]

Hmm, actually, if you have access to Fry's I'd go for one of those Athlon XP 2500+ with ECS mobo combos for around $70. Sure it's not the best motherboard but if you don't need to overclock and you're just looking for a budget system, I don't think you can beat $70 for a CPU + motherboard.

 

[Evdawg]

Originally posted by: JeffreyY
Hmm, actually, if you have access to Fry's I'd go for one of those Athlon XP 2500+ with ECS mobo combos for around $70. Sure it's not the best motherboard but if you don't need to overclock and you're just looking for a budget system, I don't think you can beat $70 for a CPU + motherboard.

thats what i was thinking... but i think i'd like to get him a decent nforce board so there's a little bit of speed, ive had problems with the ecs's (2 of them)

 

[Evdawg]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
I was up early this morning, check this out

Case- $49 shipped
CPU- $62
Memory- $73
HD- $64
Mobo- $70

And you add the disk drives!

Forgot, add a sound card if he's gonna be doin a lotta audio work. $28 Since it's a budget system, the SB live card would work fine, i've had one myself, and I can say it was a decent card. The Audigy 2 ZS is better for $88 tho, all depends on his speaker situation I suppose.

I'm selling him an old hdd of mine, and possibly my gf2 unless i see a cheap deal on a ti4200 somewhere.

Whats the best bang for the buck mobile processor? under $60 would be awesome

also, he has a lot of guitar stuff, like guitar to a switch, to a usb port. So i'm not sure if a sound card is needed a whole lot, but maybe he does need a good one.

 

[BigBadBiologist]

I don't want to confuse you with too many options, but mobile celeron CPUs and 848 chipset motherboards are a fast, quiet, and cheap way to build a system.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
I was up early this morning, check this out

Case- $49 shipped
CPU- $62
Memory- $73
HD- $64
Mobo- $70

And you add the disk drives!

Forgot, add a sound card if he's gonna be doin a lotta audio work. $28 Since it's a budget system, the SB live card would work fine, i've had one myself, and I can say it was a decent card. The Audigy 2 ZS is better for $88 tho, all depends on his speaker situation I suppose.

You can get ADATA 512MB PC3200 for a couple bucks more.

My picks:
Case: $49 shipped
RAM: $74 shipped
HD: $65
MOBO: $54 shipped or $48 shipped
Sound: $23.50 shipped Don't even argue this one; if your friend is serious about music, this is the best sound card for the money, hands down.
CPU: $42 shipped (most overclock to 2GHz) or $44 shipped (if you're not overclocking)
Optical Drive: $41 shipped

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Evdawg

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
I was up early this morning, check this out

Case- $49 shipped
CPU- $62
Memory- $73
HD- $64
Mobo- $70

And you add the disk drives!

Forgot, add a sound card if he's gonna be doin a lotta audio work. $28 Since it's a budget system, the SB live card would work fine, i've had one myself, and I can say it was a decent card. The Audigy 2 ZS is better for $88 tho, all depends on his speaker situation I suppose.

I'm selling him an old hdd of mine, and possibly my gf2 unless i see a cheap deal on a ti4200 somewhere. you're doing your friend a disservice by selling him your gf2; any KM400 mobo w/ onboard video is faster and cheaper

Whats the best bang for the buck mobile processor? under $60 would be awesome no mobiles in that price range

also, he has a lot of guitar stuff, like guitar to a switch, to a usb port. So i'm not sure if a sound card is needed a whole lot, but maybe he does need a good one.

 

[DaNorthface]

you know, paying just a little more for some parts can really enhance the entire system.. For example, instead of getting a $60 chip, why not spend $20 or $30 more and get something that's a lot faster or overclockable. If you think about it, it's only 5% more in cost of the total system but it'll make your system 20% or more faster.. The intial cost of things are expensive, but upgrade to better parts is a whole lot cheaper - unless you buy the newest and highest end parts..

 

[Evdawg]

looking at the durons doesnt impress me.. im thinking a nforce board(shuttle)/xp 2500 is worth it.

Agreed?

 

[Jeff7181]

Hey I have an Epox 8RGA that I just got back after RMAing a different one. PM me if you're interested... I'll sell it fairly cheap. I'd definately get a CPU with the Barton core if he's going to do audio work. The extra cache should help in that area.

If you want my motherboard, here's some items I'd get to go along with it...

Seagate 80 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB cache (nice and quiet so it doesn't interfere with his audio work)
Muskin PC2700 RAM... 2-2-2 (without overclocking PC2700 is just fine... Mushkin is good stuff and this has pretty low timings for maximum performance... get two of these)
XP2500 (maybe consider getting an OEM one, then spending some extra cash on a really good heatsink and big low speed fan for it, again, to keep noise down)
Antec Solution Series Quiet Black Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply (supposed to be very quiet, and Antec makes quality everything... he won't need more than a 350 watt PSU, which is included)


And the motherboard I have has onboard video which is equivalent to a GeForce4 MX... so if he gets the urge to play a classic like Half Life, Counter-Strike, or Quake 3 he'll be able to.

 

[Showtime]

You may want to check with Frys. If you have one near you, they always have some sort of deal on cpu/mobo combos. I picked up an Athlon2500+/ecs nforce mobo for $70 a few weeks ago. Runs stable at 3200+.

Good luck,

-show

 

[JeffCY]

That's what I said above.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: Evdawg

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
I was up early this morning, check this out

Case- $49 shipped
CPU- $62
Memory- $73
HD- $64
Mobo- $70

And you add the disk drives!

Forgot, add a sound card if he's gonna be doin a lotta audio work. $28 Since it's a budget system, the SB live card would work fine, i've had one myself, and I can say it was a decent card. The Audigy 2 ZS is better for $88 tho, all depends on his speaker situation I suppose.

I'm selling him an old hdd of mine, and possibly my gf2 unless i see a cheap deal on a ti4200 somewhere. you're doing your friend a disservice by selling him your gf2; any KM400 mobo w/ onboard video is faster and cheaper

Whats the best bang for the buck mobile processor? under $60 would be awesome no mobiles in that price range

also, he has a lot of guitar stuff, like guitar to a switch, to a usb port. So i'm not sure if a sound card is needed a whole lot, but maybe he does need a good one.

I have to question the remark about the KM400's onboard video. For desktop usage, sure. But for gaming? Someone run this man a UT2004 Demo Botmatch benchmark on a KM400's integrated video!

 

[Evdawg]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Hey I have an Epox 8RGA that I just got back after RMAing a different one. PM me if you're interested... I'll sell it fairly cheap. I'd definately get a CPU with the Barton core if he's going to do audio work. The extra cache should help in that area.

If you want my motherboard, here's some items I'd get to go along with it...

Seagate 80 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB cache (nice and quiet so it doesn't interfere with his audio work)
Muskin PC2700 RAM... 2-2-2 (without overclocking PC2700 is just fine... Mushkin is good stuff and this has pretty low timings for maximum performance... get two of these)
XP2500 (maybe consider getting an OEM one, then spending some extra cash on a really good heatsink and big low speed fan for it, again, to keep noise down)
Antec Solution Series Quiet Black Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply (supposed to be very quiet, and Antec makes quality everything... he won't need more than a 350 watt PSU, which is included)


And the motherboard I have has onboard video which is equivalent to a GeForce4 MX... so if he gets the urge to play a classic like Half Life, Counter-Strike, or Quake 3 he'll be able to.

I like the idea for the parts there but the ram is a tiny bit pricey for what he's looking for. Do you suggest anything else? (looking at getting 512mb still)

 

[Captante]

Jeff 7181 is giving you good advice ... I'd take it because its remarkably similar to what I was about to suggest you do for your buddy, the only difference is I don't have a motherboard to sell you, so if you want to go with a a new board instead of an RMA'ed one (no offense Jeff) I'd actually skip the NForce 2
& snag an Abit KT600 for the motherboard... otherwise all good advice.

 

[Evdawg]

Originally posted by: Captante
Jeff 7181 is giving you good advice ... I'd take it because its remarkably similar to what I was about to suggest you do for your buddy, the only difference is I don't have a motherboard to sell you, so if you want to go with a a new board instead of an RMA'ed one (no offense Jeff) I'd actually skip the NForce 2
& snag an Abit KT600 for the motherboard... otherwise all good advice.

I don't think the board itself was rma'd.. i think it was the replacement? Maybe i'm wrong

I honestly cant stand the VIA chipset.. i currently have one and i hate it personally. I can't wait to get another nforce board

 

[Jeff7181]

Here's some Mushkin Basic Green. It's very cheap, but still high quality since it's made by Mushkin.

You might want another brand though because I've noticed my Mushkin RAM likes a certain voltage, no lower, no higher. So I tend to think maybe all Mushkin RAM is sensative to voltage... and the voltage some RAM likes may be out of the range your motherboard allows. So maybe consider these instead...

Geil Value Series
Kingmax SuperRAM Series (Kingmax isn't as well known as Kingston, Corsair, etc. but they produce high quality RAM)
Buffalo (Buffalo is pretty well known around here... they had some good PC3200 RAM that used the same chips as the Corsair XMS RAM and ran higher speeds than rated with low timings for very good performance)

Those were all PC2700 rated... here's some PC3200 RAM... the prices pick up pretty much where I left off with the Buffalo RAM at $44 per 256 MB stick
(keep in mind, the PC3200 may be able to run very low timings at PC2700 speed, for example, at PC3200 speed it's rated at 2.5-3-3-8... if you only run it at PC2700 speed the timings may change to 2-3-3-7... BUT some RAM can't run lower timings regardless of the speed in MHz it's running at, so don't count on that)

Kingston ValueRAM
Corsair Value Select

There's a ton more to choose from... it doesn't really matter which you chose... just stay away from companies not widely known for producing good RAM like Roswell and Kreton. Also stay away from anything with CAS 3... the highest you want is CAS 2.5. Other than that, go with what your... or his... wallet dictates.

*EDIT* Since the price different is either very small or non-existant... I'd go with PC3200 RAM in case he ever wants to upgrade or overclock.

**EDIT** Don't think anyone has mentioned it... but if you go with an nForce2 board with integrated video, you'll definately want two sticks of RAM so they run in dual channel mode. That will help a lot with video performance if he feels like playing a game or two.